FAMILY 'UNPLANNING'
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Chuck 'we two, our two', think nutrition: Govt
Published on Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 00:59, Updated on Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 02:07 in India section
Tags: Family Planning, Government , New Delhi
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New Delhi: After dominating the Indian psyche for over 30 years, the slogan Hum Do Hamare Do is finally going to fade out.
The Government on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court saying it didn't want to penalise mothers who become pregnant with a third child.
Until now, the Government provided a one-time assistance of Rs 500 to expecting mothers who had conceived their first or second child. But now they want this two-children cap to be removed.
“The emphasis is on nutrition, not on population control. You can’t have mothers and children dying, “ says senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves.
But the Supreme Court was not impressed with the Government’s logic. In a country where the population is nearing 1.2 billion, the Court said:
‘You cannot keep producing children and expect the tax-payers to pay money for such schemes.’
Even the Opposition didn’t buy the Government reasoning.
“You need to incentivise those who aid in population control and disincentivise those who promote population growing in excess,” says BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
The Government logic is that in a country with one of the infant mortality rates in the world, it wasn't possible to deprive a would-be-mother and her child valuable nutrition.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS | |
THEN | NOW |
Under the earlier Government scheme, every pregnant woman of the BPL (below poverty line) and APL (above poverty line) families was entitled to a cash assistance of Rs 500 per delivery that was restricted to a maximum of two deliveries. | Under the modified proposal, the Centre said it was decided to remove the cap on two deliveries -- making the assistance available for every deliveries irrespective of the number of children a woman might deliver in the low performing (LP) states. |
In fact, the Government is even removing the age bar for the scheme. Earlier, only mothers above 19 could avail of this benefit.
At the moment, it may appear that the Government is softening its stand on the population policy but it also needs to be kept in mind that incentive-based population control measures have failed world wide.
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hahahaha..its anyone's guess why teh UPA govt came up with this absurd idea. They're trying to woo minorities.
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Dear Govt ( read as UPA )
we know where you are pointing this idea and for whom benefit you are
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What is really required is the education of girl. You can look at state of kerala where women education is
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Yes, why the tax payers should subsidise those who are bent upon producing more and more children ? If the
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Supreme court statement is 100% valid. The government decision to remove the cap is completly illogical. Its high time we
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